Where Does Advertising Content Lead You? We Created a Bookstore to Find Out

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Test how creative changes demand across audience segments, not only average clicks. Identify which visitors the message attracts or repels and connect ad response to meaningful product outcomes.

Reported result

What the study found

Ad content can polarize consumer responses. Depending on how many consumers favor the advertised genre, the same content can increase or decrease the total number of searches and purchases for the advertised book.

Research question

What the authors investigated

How does the content of a display ad affect what consumers search for and buy?

Design

The authors created an online bookstore and ran a preregistered incentive-compatible experiment, randomly varying ad exposure and the content shown in ads to store visitors.

Sample and setting

Visitors to an experimental online bookstore; the publisher abstract does not state the sample size.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

An experimental bookstore and book genres are a specific setting; the abstract does not establish equivalent effects for SaaS ads or report the sample count. Search and purchase responses depend on audience composition.

Research sources

INFORMS publisher record and abstract; publication date and journal issue checked against publisher metadata.